Tuesday, November 20, 2007

A Laundry List of Problems

As noted at this site yesterday and all across these here Interwebs, the Steelers flaws across the board were exposed on Sunday.Still, and we can’t let it go since it’s been such an issue all season, Special Teams.

Columnist Alex Marvez of FoxSports.com today puts Special Teams right at the top of offenders on the Steelers’ lengthy laundry list of problems on Sunday:

“Even so, Pittsburgh lost because of its special teams. New York's Leon Washington returned a punt 33 yards to set up Mike Nugent's 38-yard field goal early in overtime.”

That’s on top of everthing else that went wrong, as Marvez noted:

“Pittsburgh fell to a 2-8 team with a quarterback (Kellen Clemens) making just his second NFL start inside a visiting stadium packed with towel-waving Steelers fans.”

“We fell below the line of what's acceptable," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “We didn't tackle well defensively. We didn't protect our quarterback. We didn't run the ball. We didn't establish any rhythm. That performance speaks for itself.”

To re-cap, then, it says here the laundry list includes:

Too many sacks on offense.

Too few sacks on defense.

Minimal push by the offensive line to open lanes for the running backs.

Ha! That's true. Statue of Liberty, Flea-Flicker, call it what you will ... It's a trick play for suckers that in retrospect our coaching staff (or somebody) maybe should have anticipated coming from a 1-8 team at home, coming off a bye week, trying to generate some excitement and set the tone in a game in which they knew they were longshots.